FROM THE STORY: In the middle of a statewide housing crisis, the city of Providence has a favor to ask: Do you know of any vacant plots of land where affordable housing could be built?

On Thursday morning, Mayor Jorge O. Elorza announced the creation of the Providence Neighborhood Land Bank, a new program funded with $8.5 million of the city’s American Rescue Plan Act funds that will acquire, hold, and transfer underused vacant land throughout the city with the goal of generating new affordable housing.Rhode Islanders can email suggestions of blighted, vacant lots for the Land Bank program to LandBank@providenceri.gov.

The program is designed to reduce barriers to development, such as site control and pre-development costs, to promote the construction of affordable housing. Other cities, like Philadelphia, Baltimore, and New Orleans all have land bank programs to spur affordable housing development and develop urban agriculture. But third-party organizations in some cities, such as the Philadelphia Coalition for Affordable Communities, have raised questions over the program’s effectiveness and slow pace of sales after almost a decade of that city’s land bank program.

More details at the link: https://www.bostonglobe.com/2022/10/13/metro/providence-announces-new-land-bank-program-aquire-vacant-land-build-affordable-housing/?p1=StaffPage